Author Interview: The Grimoire, the Gods, and the Girl by K.R.R. Lockhaven
- Fiction Fans
- May 8, 2024
- 25 min read
Updated: May 9, 2024
Episode 139
Release Date: May 8, 2024
Your hosts are joined by KRR Lockhaven to talk about The Grimoire, the Gods, and the Girl, the final novel in his Azure Archipelago series. They discuss ending a series vs starting one, re-emerging villains, and love quadrangles. They also bring up Mrs Covington's, a standalone but related novel that adds an extra layer of coziness to the series as a whole.
Find more from K.R.R. Lockhaven:
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Thanks to the following musicians for the use of their songs:
- Amarià for the use of “Sérénade à Notre Dame de Paris” - Josh Woodward for the use of “Electric Sunrise”
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
Episode Transcript*
*this transcript is AI generated, please excuse the mess.
Lilly: 0:04
Hello and welcome to Fiction Fans, a podcast where we read books and other words, too. I'm Lily.
Sara: 0:10
I'm Sarah, and I am so delighted that we are once again joined by our good friend K. R. R. Lockhaven to talk about the last book in his trilogy, The Grimoire of the Gods and the Girl. Welcome.
KRRL: 0:23
you very much. It's always great to be here.
Lilly: 0:25
Always a delight. But before we can talk about your excellent book, I do have a couple of questions first. What's something great that happened recently?
Sara: 0:33
I made a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch today. That was pretty great.
Lilly: 0:37
yeah. I'm so jealous. I
Sara: 0:41
I do need to get Gruyere for the next time I make it because I love Gruyere and a grilled cheese sandwich, and I sadly did not have that for this one, but it was still good. 10 out of 10 would make again.
KRRL: 0:51
Nice.
Lilly: 0:52
haven't had a grilled cheese in a long time. I normally do quesadillas because they're so much easier.
Sara: 0:56
They are easier.
KRRL: 0:58
Last time I was a little bit drunk, I made a grilled cheese sandwich, and then I did like a Twitter poll about dipping it in ketchup or not, because I do dip it in ketchup. Maybe that's blasphemous. I don't know.
Lilly: 1:10
Well, I mean, dipping it in tomato soup is a thing, so I don't know why ketchup would be different.
KRRL: 1:15
I don't know.
Sara: 1:16
But it very definitely, for some reason, it very definitely is different in my mind.
KRRL: 1:21
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. My good thing, so I'm going to Japan in like one week. So I guess that's the
Sara: 1:29
Oh
KRRL: 1:30
That could be a good thing in itself.
Sara: 1:31
that's so soon.
KRRL: 1:33
Yeah. And, but, the even cooler thing is that we are gonna go to a capybara cafe in Tokyo. So,
Lilly: 1:43
Holy shit, that's amazing!
KRRL: 1:45
I'll finally get to meet one.
Sara: 1:47
Incredible.
Lilly: 1:48
Can you pet them? Like, are you allowed to, like, interact with them? Oh, that's so cool.
KRRL: 1:52
It's like a, it's a capybara and cat cafe. So there's several cats and a capybara.
Sara: 1:58
That sounds fantastic.
Lilly: 2:00
also, send us a thousand pictures of capybaras.
Sara: 2:03
Yes, please.
Lilly: 2:06
That's your homework. No vacation that you get to enjoy. You have a homework assignment.
KRRL: 2:11
that's fun though.
Lilly: 2:13
Oh, my good thing is that we planted some flowers last weekend. We put in a bed for annuals. So just some little guys that aren't going to last very long. But they're so bright and pretty and it's always fun to pick like, what color pattern we want every year. So, that was nice. Lots of oranges this year.
Sara: 2:32
What flowers?
Lilly: 2:33
Uh, mostly pansies. And what is everyone drinking tonight?
Sara: 2:37
I have got cider. It's not particularly piratical, but I don't drink beer, so cider it is.
KRRL: 2:44
Yeah, mine's not really piratey either, but I'm just drinking a German chocolate, dark ale that I love
Lilly: 2:52
Ooh, that sounds good though.
KRRL: 2:53
from Leavenworth, Washington. Oh
Lilly: 2:57
have the least priority drink, which is hot chocolate with some caramel liqueur. It is delicious, but not very hardcore.
Sara: 3:08
don't know, I feel like the Marauder King would drink that though.
KRRL: 3:11
yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Sara: 3:12
like MK would drink
Lilly: 3:14
Oh, he would for sure. Yeah.
KRRL: 3:16
Especially if it was kind of a little bit of chilly night on the boat or something. Sounds perfect.
Lilly: 3:21
Alright, well thank you all for justifying my very silly beverage. So, I have not done any extracurricular reading lately. So, that's my answer for if I've read anything good lately.
Sara: 3:34
My answer is the same. I have not had time to do much reading.
KRRL: 3:38
I haven't really either, but I did get a chance to listen to an audio book of The Crew by Sadir S. Samir. And it was awesome. It was hilarious, fun adventure, and like really original magic system and stuff. I really enjoyed it.
Sara: 3:55
Nice. I think I have a copy of that on my Kindle app as an e book,
KRRL: 3:59
nice.
Sara: 4:00
but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. So, your recommendation is pushing it up the TBR.
KRRL: 4:05
Right on.
Lilly: 4:06
Well, I did get to read the third book of your trilogy. And I was very grateful that it starts off right off the bat with Robin, the little Robin, familiar friend of Azur, our main character, telling the reader what the heck happened, because it's been a minute since I read the first two books and I did need, I needed the reminder.
KRRL: 4:29
Yeah, I need them too sometimes. So, I write those things down for myself too. I have fun with those because I, as you know, I put them in a different context. This time she has a bunch of, like, little birds that are kind of her fans that are talking to her because she's famous now and asking her about her adventures so she gets to kind of tell them.
Sara: 4:49
I really love the way that you do those. Like, obviously a recap is helpful, always. And I love when a book has a recap, even if it's just a, like a regular, you know, the story so far. But I love that you provide, like, an in world explanation for them. That just adds that little layer of fun to it.
KRRL: 5:09
Yeah, I'm glad you think so. They're fun to write. It
Lilly: 5:13
it a little bit from Robin's perspective, because she is a character.
Sara: 5:20
Yes, she is. So forgive me if we've already asked this before, but my impression, and I could be wrong about this, but my impression was that the first book was not necessarily intended as a trilogy. It felt very self contained, right? And like, obviously there's a story that continues in books two and three, but it felt almost like the first book standalone. Were you always intending for this to be a trilogy?
KRRL: 5:45
really was not in my mind to be a trilogy at first. I always kind of had that possibility, but it was kind of a standalone. And then I just kind of liked that world so much that I wanted to keep it going and those characters and everything.
Lilly: 5:58
And we even got a little bit of an extra taste of the world when you released Mrs. Covington. Sorry, Covington. I'm never gonna get that right. Which is a separate story, but takes place in the same universe. And that was like a nice little just extra, extra taste of the very fun setting you've created.
KRRL: 6:17
Yeah, and it was a fun one to write, too. I wouldn't mind going back to more books in that world someday.
Lilly: 6:23
Well, that was my question. This is the final book of the trilogy, but it sounds like there could be some more stories happening in this universe.
KRRL: 6:31
There could be. I don't have anything planned right now. I'm currently writing something that's a completely different world, a little bit more serious and maybe dark. Not grimdark or anything, but definitely a different tone than these books. So I'll be working on that for quite a while here, but maybe years in the future I'll return to that world.
Lilly: 6:52
When you need a little bit of a light hearted break from whatever hole you work yourself into with, uh, Not Grimdark, he says. All right.
KRRL: 7:01
Yeah, I can't seem to stick to one thing. I go from cozy to something dark now. I don't know.
Sara: 7:07
That's not a bad thing. You have range.
KRRL: 7:10
Try to.
Lilly: 7:11
What's the experience like between starting a series versus continuing a series? You know, you've spent some time in this world now, you've gotten familiar with the people in it, and suddenly you're starting a whole new project. Is that harder? Easier? Intimidating? Like, what's up? And why
KRRL: 7:28
Yeah, intimidating is probably a good word for it. Especially once you get to three, because you kind of want to just think about bringing it all together. And there's so many characters, it kind of just starts growing and expanding with more and more characters and So you want all of them to have satisfying endings, so in that way it's hard. And when you first start out, the world is kind of, you can make it whatever you want, but then in the next two books you kind of have some rules now that you have to follow, and some history that you have to make sure you're getting right, and things like that.
Sara: 8:00
Would you say that your favorite character to write has changed from book to book, or has that been pretty consistent over this process?
Lilly: 8:09
whole time? Uh,
KRRL: 8:11
that's basically the answer, uh, because she's just fun. But I did have a new character in the third book that just kind of came out of nowhere and kind of inspired by Discworld characters. He's kind of a Artful Dodger type character, but also with a little bit of Terry Pratchett to him, and I really had a lot of fun writing him.
Lilly: 8:33
would that be? I don't think this is a spoiler, because I remember noting at one point a new character says, and that would be cut in my own throat, which is of course a catchphrase for a Pratchett character. Okay, I loved that. That was like such a nice little nod without interfering at all with the scene, right? Like Discworld could just keep going, totally fine, innocuous line, but anyone in the know is like, I see that.
KRRL: 9:01
Nice.
Lilly: 9:02
Would you say that your editing process has changed much over the course of writing the series?
KRRL: 9:08
I have probably about the same. I don't do things probably the way I should, like a lot of people just kind of rush through the first draft and then they go back and really start thinking about editing and rewriting. And I take it a little slower and I kind of will reread things over and see if they sound good. And I kind of, I've stayed consistent with that kind of strategy.
Sara: 9:32
So it's a little more like editing on the go rather than editing once everything is complete.
KRRL: 9:38
Yeah, and then it gets maybe a little easier, like I need to edit less, possibly. Although in this new thing I'm writing, I'm finding that I'm definitely editing more. I'm gonna need more, because I'm not happy with it unless it's really good, or whatever.
Lilly: 9:54
That's good though, right? Because that means you're stretching, you're reaching.
KRRL: 9:58
yeah,
Lilly: 9:58
This book saw a little bit of a change in format from the previous two books in the series. It's the first time that we've seen, like, excerpts from a historical text interwoven in with the plot.
KRRL: 10:12
yeah. I just always love reading, like, books within books. Like, I love that. And so I wanted to kind of try to incorporate that as well as I could. And then I also wanted to kind of build on the magic. Like, I never really got into where it comes from. So I kind of wanted to get into that too. And that was a good way to do that through this grimoire that they get their hands on.
Lilly: 10:36
It was really cool seeing the, like, inner workings of this world that I feel like I've gotten pretty familiar with. Before this book, I've read three books that take place here, two in the series, and then, of course, Mrs. Covington's. So then finally getting this, like, it made me want to go take a history class, but, like, in the zorarchipelago.
KRRL: 10:54
Oh, nice.
Lilly: 10:55
Do they have a community college I could sign up for?
KRRL: 10:58
I could, yeah, sure. I could try to do
Lilly: 11:01
sure. Awesome.
KRRL: 11:04
Yeah, it's, it's fun digging into like history of a world, you know, it's kind of fun to, to build that. So that was a good opportunity. And then they get to go to the, well, you might ask a question about this later, so maybe I won't.
Lilly: 11:17
We'll dig into that a little more in the spoilers section.
Sara: 11:21
But talking about the grimoire and relating back to our previous conversation about maybe writing more in this world, would you ever consider writing a, like a historical novel in the sense that a story that takes place centuries ago? in the time period of the world.
KRRL: 11:40
Yeah, that sounds pretty fun. I have not actually considered that, but I definitely wouldn't rule it out.
Sara: 11:47
I think the, uh, the hints that we get of story in, you know, these Grimoire excerpts where I would read more of that.
KRRL: 11:55
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. One thing about it is that I was trying to kind of make it vague, whether or not it was reliable. I don't know if that came across. I hope it did, but there's a lot of, are the gods real? Are they not? Are they just these magic users? Like different things like that, which. Was kind of fun to play with.
Sara: 12:17
I definitely feel like that came across.
Lilly: 12:19
Yeah, and I think the sort of unreliability of those excerpts was part of what made them so compelling. Because I felt like I was right there with Azur trying to sort through, like, what I thought was real, and what I thought was just, you know, fabrication from the people of the era.
KRRL: 12:35
Yeah, that was about probably my favorite part of this book was getting into all that kind of thing because, you know, she needs to try to figure this out in a pretty timely manner and there's a lot to suss out and try to figure out what's real because she really needs to like get to the bottom of it as quick as possible.
Lilly: 12:52
Well, speaking of getting to the bottom of it, I think we have to switch over to the spoilers section, because so much happens in this book that I don't want to ruin for anybody. Sarah, normally I would ask you who should read this book, but I think the answer's pretty obvious. If you've read books one or two, You should read this book.
Sara: 13:13
Yes.
Lilly: 13:13
So, I think a better question would be, now that we've finished the series, now that we've read all three, who should read this series?
Sara: 13:21
You should read this series if you are looking for a unique fantasy world with, you know, some family drama, some action. There's quite a lot of danger and some surprising darkness at times too. And if you like capybaras.
Lilly: 13:38
also, bird sex.
Sara: 13:39
And also bird sex.
Lilly: 13:43
And if you like Caffey Barrows, absolutely. This episode of Fiction Fans is brought to you by our patrons. If you sign up for our Patreon, you have access to all sorts of incredible content, such as Stupid stuff like Shoot, Screw, or Marry, which will be available this week for the characters in this series. And we're also doing a series of shoutouts for our longest standing patrons. So I would like to personally thank Mike Hawk for all of your support. We could not do this without you. The remainder of this episode contains spoilers.
Sara: 14:28
Starting off with a fun question. If you had to swap the roles of two of your characters, Which would be more disastrous to the story?
KRRL: 14:38
Disastrous to the story by swapping characters.
Sara: 14:42
Like, what would completely derail the story?
Lilly: 14:45
I have an answer. Sorry, you weren't asking me, though.
KRRL: 14:48
Oh, go ahead. It might help me with mine.
Lilly: 14:52
the awful bigoted politician who returns as the big bad for the finale of the book, and Elijah, Azur's very sweet, insecure husband.
Sara: 15:04
I mean, I, that would be, that would be disastrous. I would
Lilly: 15:09
It would be disastrous.
Sara: 15:09
I would not want Azur to end up with Pratt. On the other hand, Elisha would be a much better governor of the islands, so.
Lilly: 15:19
would change the story.
Sara: 15:21
would change the story. There would be no story. There would, there would be no conflict there.
Lilly: 15:26
Yeah.
KRRL: 15:28
Wow, that is a, that is a tough one. Let's see. I'm trying to think of two that are like polar opposites, like what you just said.
Lilly: 15:38
It's kind of cheating to use Pratt, because you can swap him with almost anybody, and it would be a heck of a thing.
KRRL: 15:45
Yeah, let's see. Let's swap Zoth Averex, the dragon, with, with Robin. I don't know why that would be disastrous, but it would be interesting. It'd be fun.
Lilly: 16:01
It would, because Robin sort of functions as Azur's, like, emotional backbone, right?
KRRL: 16:08
Uh huh.
Lilly: 16:09
She's like her, her companion, her trusted person, and I mean, I love Xoth Avarex, and he's a good friend who totally comes through for Azur, but he's not, like, supportive in the same way.
KRRL: 16:22
Nope. I don't know.
Sara: 16:24
I feel like the Azur who grew up with Zoth Avrax as her companion is a very different Azur. A very different Azur.
KRRL: 16:33
Oh, yeah. It's an interesting alternate universe there.
Lilly: 16:39
So, when you decided to turn this into a longer series, did you know right off the bat how you wanted the third book to end, or has that sort of changed as you were writing books two and three?
KRRL: 16:51
Definitely changed. It was going to be Pratt as the, the main bad guy. He would be back.
Lilly: 16:56
Unfortunately predicting the real world more than I think you wanted to.
KRRL: 17:01
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I guess in the real broad strokes, I guess I always kind of knew where it was headed, but a lot of different things got changed along the way.
Sara: 17:12
Can you tell us some of those things maybe that, that you changed?
KRRL: 17:15
Well, okay. I guess maybe change is not the right way to say it. Maybe I just, I didn't know where it was going to go in a lot of ways. I kind of knew the end point, but not really how you're going to get there. I didn't really. plan that they were going to go to the continent and kind of didn't really actually plan for all that history either but it started to make more sense as a way to get to the bottom of what magic was so she could you know get what she needed to get in order to face Pratt because he has like that magical ring so he has like a magical item that makes him Superhuman, unbeatable, basically, even by a dragon, so she needs something to try to overcome that, and she needs to go to the continent to get it.
Lilly: 17:57
Yeah, that was really fun. In book two, we started to explore a little bit of some of the other places in this world, but we never got as far as the continent itself, and seeing that really different location was really exciting.
KRRL: 18:11
Yeah, it was, it was fun. I kind of just wanted to make it a, like, you know, Lord of the Rings type place, or it was at one point before everyone in it died.
Lilly: 18:23
That'll do it.
KRRL: 18:23
Yeah.
Sara: 18:26
So speaking of Pratt, like you say, Pratt's back. We don't see him really at all in Book 2, I think he's off screen. Did you have to make any special considerations when reintroducing him, or how did that go?
KRRL: 18:41
Well, I hope it went smoothly enough might not have been the wisest choice maybe to take the main bad guy out for the entire book too. I mean, he's mentioned several times and he's a big part of the world still. And there's kind of the main,
Sara: 18:54
His presence is still there even if we don't see him physically, I feel, in Book 2.
KRRL: 19:00
Yeah, I kind of wanted to make sure he was kind of looming in the background is not gone yet. So yeah, when he comes back, I wanted to, in book one, he kind of had this thing where he's still kind of being political and still not trying to show his true colors as much because he's just trying to play it more straight possibly. But then now he's like, ah, I'm just doing what I'm going to do. No, one's going to stop me. And that kind of thing. Um,
Lilly: 19:27
Mask off, if you
KRRL: 19:29
Yes, exactly. Yeah.
Lilly: 19:32
seemed familiar. Could he have been a metaphor for someone, or something,
KRRL: 19:37
Yeah, maybe. Not really sure who that would be, but yeah, for sure.
Lilly: 19:45
Yeah. Oh, it's really nice seeing, like, good guys win. I know that's a silly thing to say,
KRRL: 19:52
It is though.
Lilly: 19:53
but sometimes you just need that, right?
KRRL: 19:55
Yeah, yeah, and, I don't know, I feel like the overall tone of these books is kind of conducive to that, or kind of like, that's the way it should ultimately go, I felt. Good guys winning.
Sara: 20:09
Absolutely.
Lilly: 20:10
Although, It lulls me into a false sense of security. Because there's, you know, fun hijinks and, and goofy songs about butts and beer and things. And then suddenly, there's a realistic drowning scene. Or I think in, was it the first book that Robin might have died and were unsure for a moment? Like the real world, you're never really safe.
KRRL: 20:36
Right. Yeah.
Sara: 20:37
I mean, I feel like that makes sense with the book because the tone of this third book, I think, is a little more serious than the first two. Just in general. Obviously we do have some of those scenes in the first two books as well. But this book, I think, is just a smidge darker than the beginning of the series.
KRRL: 21:00
Things are getting a little, little more serious in the world, so everyone needs to get a little more serious.
Sara: 21:06
And you kill off Blunderbuss! I can't believe you killed him!
KRRL: 21:12
Yeah, I know, it was sad, but I hope it was kind of like a cool, or not a cool moment, I don't know, done in a way that kind of makes you think, oh, he was, you know, a great guy and you know, he's okay with going and I just, I really actually loved writing that scene even though it was kind of sad and I didn't really want to do it.
Lilly: 21:31
It was beautiful. We were able to actually spend our time saying goodbye because of the way that, that scene played out.
KRRL: 21:38
Yeah, I hope that worked.
Sara: 21:40
And it made sense. I mean, you know, they're in this big battle. Of course people are going to die. So it did make sense to have someone get killed. Even if it broke my heart at the same time.
KRRL: 21:53
Yeah, it's so, those decisions are kind of tough, it's like, do I really want to? Like, because the, you know, the tone is such a. And I'm like, does this ruin the tone of it or is it too much? Or, but I don't know. I kind of felt like it was realistic and allowed me to do some philosophizing about life that I wanted to try.
Sara: 22:15
I mean, I think it works. Was it always Blunderbuss that you were intending to kill? Or was there ever any time when it was someone else?
KRRL: 22:22
There's actually like Marauder King for a lot of like that was the original plan and then I'm not exactly sure why I switched But maybe I thought that Marauder King was too big of a character But then again Blunderbuss is just as big as him. So I really couldn't tell you why I ended up going with him
Lilly: 22:40
So, was that a scene that surprised you, or were there any scenes that surprised you when you were writing this book?
KRRL: 22:46
Yeah, yeah, it did. I had some, some things that just kind of pop into your head from time to time, and I had like a couple things I wanted him to say, I wasn't sure it was going to be him at the time, but a couple things I wanted whoever was dying to say, like the story that he tells about a time he helped some kid out, and like I, I had that, and so I had to kind of build around that, and the rest of the scene kind of did, kind of was surprising, you know, kind of emotional to do.
Sara: 23:12
I bet.
Lilly: 23:12
We've seen Azur go through the ringer over this series. In book one, she sort of deals with her father's bigotry, and he does ultimately grow as a person. I wouldn't say overcome it entirely, but he grows. So how is it different writing that conflict and writing Azur's conflict in this book, trying to enlighten her adopted daughter, who's much younger, obviously. I think she's like around eight. And she has issues with gargoyles. And so it's, it's sort of an interesting parallel, but very different.
KRRL: 23:48
Yeah, the book one, she's dealing with her dad's stuff, which, and he hadn't always been like that. He kind of just became like that later in life when Pratt started to be a thing in the islands. And so that change was what really, really bothered her. And then in this book with Oriana, her adopted daughter, she, uh, has some pretty compelling reasons to. to not like gargoyles, seeing as her parents were killed by them right in front of her. But, you know, Azure takes this opportunity to kind of just teach her that you can't judge all of them by the actions of one of them in any group. And so it's just kind of a continuation, I felt like, throughout the series. That's kind of a theme.
Lilly: 24:30
Yeah. And it's not just one moment where Azur goes, That's not nice, better not do it. And then Orianna says, Okay.
KRRL: 24:39
Right. That's pretty defiant.
Lilly: 24:41
Yeah, they have to work through it for, I would say, like, at least the middle half of the book.
KRRL: 24:46
Yeah, yeah, I feel like that kind of thing wouldn't be easy. So it was challenging for both of them. She's, you know, her and Elijah are so good together in that way, like working as a team to try to make sure that they can raise her without prejudice and stuff like that. And she's pretty stubborn, strong willed, and so it takes quite a while to get through her on that.
Sara: 25:08
Speaking of Elijah, who we haven't talked much about in this conversation yet, but he's great and I love him. At the end of book two, he's reverted back to his skeletal self, so we see him as a skeleton again, and he also kind of loses a lot of the confidence that he had gained, so he's very insecure still. Can you talk a little bit about his character arc over the series as a whole?
KRRL: 25:35
Yeah. So as we meet him, as you know, he's just very insecure and has no self esteem at all. And he kind of falls in love with Azure. And then they, you know, they get, end up getting together in book two and he's back to human form and feeling good. And then at the end of book two, like you said, back to a skeleton. And then so book three kind of completes his thing of kind of gaining confidence no matter what form he's in. He starts to. You know, he's, he's slow to do it, but he bonds with his adopted daughter, even though he's in the skeletal form, and she's kind of scared of him, kind of not wanting to touch him, but he works through that, and that kind of helps him build his confidence. And then, you know, just Azure's, you know, she's a pretty good partner for him, and so along, you know, with everything that's going on, he just kind of builds his confidence, even in skeletal form. And starts to kick some ass at the end there.
Lilly: 26:36
He really gets his moment, because he realizes, as a skeleton, he can't die. So he gets to do some really badass stuff.
KRRL: 26:44
He forgoes becoming a human because he could help the most in skeletal form, so.
Lilly: 26:48
But we do see him return at the
KRRL: 26:50
Yes. Yeah. Azure finally gets, uh, some time alone with him. Heh heh. She's been waiting for.
Lilly: 26:57
Poor Azure. Yeah.
Sara: 27:00
She deserves
Lilly: 27:01
They got married a whole book ago. Well, I would say Azure and Elijah are the main couple. of this book. You know, we see them parent together and their relationship, it's beautiful and supportive and fantastic. But we get quite a bit of Robin's escapades as well. And I'd say she gets in a little over her head in this book.
KRRL: 27:24
Oh yeah, that was pretty fun. Like not a love triangle, but kind of a, some kind of love shape with several different suitors. And I was really trying to make it not typical or maybe a cliche or cringy. It was kind of meant to be funny, but I mean, she's, she's Robin, you know, she's got a lot of people that are into her or birds that are into
Lilly: 27:47
Yeah.
KRRL: 27:48
males and females.
Lilly: 27:49
They're people.
KRRL: 27:50
Yeah.
Lilly: 27:51
It was really interesting seeing her, because she's always so confident with her love life, which is fantastic. I loved reading that, but then seeing her, you know, struggle and second guess herself, it was nice seeing that different side.
KRRL: 28:05
Yeah. Yeah. She kind of has to wrestle with the thing about the hot bird and the, the nice bird. Which one do you choose? Like, I mean, that, that's a pretty typical love triangle, I guess. But then there's the love bird who comes in and she kind of really rattles Robin cause she's not really used to that kind of thing. It finds herself attracted to this love bird and really doesn't know what to do. And so, yeah, she, Goes through some stuff, but in the end she finds a situation that works for her.
Sara: 28:36
And you know, good for her.
Lilly: 28:38
you think she lives happily ever after?
KRRL: 28:40
I like to think so, yeah. Yeah, they have this little arrangement that's gonna work out for them, I hope.
Lilly: 28:47
Yeah. Alright, if you could send a one sentence message back in time to Azure at the beginning of the series, what would have the biggest impact on her story?
KRRL: 28:58
Wow, that's a really good question. Okay, one sentence. I'm trying to figure out where she went wrong. You know, she did go wrong several times. I think I would tell her to just remember the love that you have for these people. Like, at times, I think the only place that she faltered is When she would kind of forget, not forget, but like let anger get in the way of relationships, whether that was with her dad or her daughter or even Xoth Avarax. There was lots of conflicts in there. And a lot of times anger would get in the way of what she really meant. And so maybe just instead of going to anger, Go to communication. I mean, that's what I would tell myself anyway, if I had to go back. Like, don't go to anger. Communicate what you're feeling with people. And usually you can come to a agreement about stuff. But for too long, I had just kind of let anger take over and hurt relationships over my life that I wish I could take back sometimes. But, uh, yeah, that's probably what I would tell her. That was quite an answer.
Sara: 30:06
I mean, it's, it's a good message. It's like you say something that's useful for everyone.
Lilly: 30:11
Would you say that that's what you would like people to take away from this series? Or is there something you'd hope people take away from the series?
KRRL: 30:18
Yeah, I mean, that's a, that's a pretty good one. You know, you try to kind of incorporate things from your own life when you're trying to do stuff about themes and stuff. And so that is definitely a theme in my life. And so I wanted to make that clear. Also, just kind of the way that they, the marauders live, their philosophy. It's not always something all of us can do. And like Azure actually gets into that with them. Like, you know, Not everyone can just be in a boat and drink and have fun all the time. Like there's responsibilities and there's problems in the world, but the overall kind of feeling that they're trying to have is just be kind, have fun and do good in the world, you know, just, I mean, it's pretty basic, but it's kind of like the overall philosophy of the books, I would say
Lilly: 31:09
Hopefully we all have the chance to be a marauder, at least for a little bit.
KRRL: 31:12
should.
Sara: 31:13
If only you mentioned that you're working on a new project and that it's maybe not grim dark, but darker and, and maybe a little grim, dark adjacent. Can you tell us anything more about it?
KRRL: 31:25
Yeah, it's called Fool, so it's set in a completely different world, and I guess the basics of it is there's a fool to the king in this fantasy land. Most of it takes place in this city. So, the king is the only person in the world who has magic, and his line is descended from the gods, that's the story anyway. So he rules with an iron fist, because he's the only one in the world with magic. So this Jester fool, he starts out as a prisoner of war and kind of works his way up to being like the right hand man of the king. And then the fool's son is kidnapped. And these people who kidnapped him want him to find out where the king actually gets his powers, cause they don't believe that he's descended from the gods and there there's unrest in the city. And this group is looking to overthrow the king. And so they want to know where he really gets his powers. And so it's kind of a mystery about how he's got to try to find this out under the nose of the king.
Lilly: 32:27
Ooh, I feel like that's gonna have a lot of twists and turns and intrigue, and I can't wait to read it.
KRRL: 32:34
hope so. It is definitely fun to write a mystery. It's the first time I've done it, but uh, it's fun.
Sara: 32:39
Well, I'm looking forward to it.
Lilly: 32:41
Before we let you go, can you tell our listeners where they can follow you to get updates on The Fool and The Grimoire? Oh no, The Grimoire, The
KRRL: 32:51
The gods and the girl.
Lilly: 32:52
and The Girl. I wasn't sure what order they were in. I knew those were the three words.
KRRL: 32:57
I'm not always sure either.
Lilly: 32:59
That has just been released as of when people are listening to this.
KRRL: 33:03
Right. Yeah. It came out last Friday. Yeah, so you can go to krrlockhaven. com Or, uh, I have a page on Shadowspark. com, um, I'm on Twitter, I'll call it Twitter forever, at Kyles137, and that's about it, really.
Lilly: 33:24
Thank you so much for joining us, and everyone should absolutely go read The Grimoire, The Gods, and The Girl, except they should probably not start there.
KRRL: 33:34
Probably not.
Sara: 33:35
If you have not read the first two books in the series, go and do that first, and then come back and read the GR War, the God's and the Girl.
Lilly: 33:43
And read Mrs. Covington's before you finish the series, because it'll blow your mind.
KRRL: 33:49
heh,
Sara: 33:49
Yes.
KRRL: 33:50
well thank you so much for having me, it's always fun.
Sara: 33:54
It's always great to have you on.
Lilly: 34:00
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Fiction Fans.
Sara: 34:04
Come disagree with us. We're on Twitter, Blue Sky, Instagram, and TikTok, at FictionFansPod. You can also email us at FictionFansPod at gmail. com.
Lilly: 34:14
If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and follow us wherever your podcasts live.
Sara: 34:23
We also have a Patreon where you can support us and find exclusive episodes and a lot of other nonsense.
Lilly: 34:29
Thanks again for listening, and may your villains always be defeated. Bye!
